You Turn Back To Me Smiling
by Wapomeo Huntress
Summary: In which Cassidy Jones fails to follow Step One: "Don't flirt with the four thousand year old mummy who doesn't look like a day over 21." And it leads to insanity
1. Chapter 1

Every day for the past 18 months, Cass had come to the museum. She would stay for various lengths of time. Sometimes she'd stay for hours, mindlessly wandering the halls. Sometimes she could only come in for a half hour or so. But every time she came, she sang, the song would change but she would sing. Sometimes it was a jingle she found online and other times it was a rock ballad or a show tune, she seemed to favor those.

When the exhibits came to life at night, you could always find at least one of them humming what had echoed through the halls that day. Usually it was the exhibit that saw her the most. Teddy, Jed, and even Ahkmenrah were known to hum. Larry had never figured out where they got the tune from. He knew they had to have gotten it from a guest, but which one seemed to leave such an impression on them?

One day, Larry came in early for work, he hoped to catch who was doing the singing that caused all the exhibits to hum in the night. Soon he found someone in the Egypt exhibit, she was the only one there. She was carrying a tune that he found to be familiar, Jed had been humming it just last week.

" _So nice to see you here, impolite would only be beneath us, it's been ooh, what? A half a year? Like nothing ever happened in between us. I just wish you opened fire on me so I can see you still worry if I care."_ She sang. She had been spinning so when she saw Larry she was a bit surprised. "SHIT!" She exclaimed. Larry chuckled at her startled reaction.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." He said. The woman gave him a sheepish smile.

"No worries, I guess I should know better than to stage a musical number in a museum, can't help it I suppose. Best acoustics in the city." She said.

"I'm sure the exhibits wouldn't mind." Larry said, not kidding. But of course, the woman took it as a joke.

"I'm Cassidy, by the way. But please, just call me Cass." She said with a grin.

"Larry, I'm the night watch."

"Oh! Am I interrupting your rounds!?" Cassidy exclaimed. She jogged over to one of the pillars to grab a slouchy bag. "Sorry, I'm an art student, I got a little wrapped up in sketching the sarcophagus." She explained. Well that explained why the origin of the tune went from exhibit to exhibit.

"Have you drawn everything here?" Larry couldn't help ask.

"Not even close, I haven't gotten to any of the animal halls and my friend says there's a Lewis and Clark hall that I haven't even found yet." Cassidy said. There was sudden noise behind them and Cassidy jumped. "What the fuck." she said.

"Well, it's after hours. How would you like to draw the mummy himself?" Larry asked. Cassidy raised her eyebrow as Larry raised the lid of the sarcophagus and a body raised from it. She had to fight every instinct that told her to run for the door. Larry then helped the body unwrap his head. The mummy turned to the girl in the room and shot her a boyish grin.

"Oh hello," he started. "And who might you be?" He asked. Cassidy paled and took a deep breath. How do you interact with a mummy? This was certainly not something you teach in any informal etiquette lesson.

"Right, okay, hi, I'm Cassidy Jones, but please call me Cass." she started. She tilted her head and stepped closer to get a better look at the man that was the mummy. "Okay, so they didn't get the cheekbones high enough, the nose is smaller than how they imagined it." She looked at the side of his face. "The jaw needed to be more defined." she continued. The mummy looked at Larry bizarrely.

"Cass, a little explanation?" Larry asked. Cass jumped back and let out a sheepish grin.

"I found an artist rendition of skull and their placement markers were off, I was seeing where they messed up." She said. Cass wandered over to her bag as the mummy got changed. When she turned around she saw the pharaoh in his royal garb. "Wow." she muttered. The mummy chuckled.

"I am Ahkmenrah fourth son of the fourth king. A pleasure to meet you Cass." He said with the boyish smile returning. Cassidy bit back the blush. "Might I ask what this artist portrayed me as?" Ahkmenrah asked.

"I'm gonna leave you two, Cass, just come find me when you want out okay?" Larry said. Cassidy nodded in acknowledgement as Ahkmenrah walked over to see Cassidy's sketchbook. She flipped through the pages with ease pulling up the page. The printing of the official rendering was next to the pencil drawing that was signed by Cassidy. He couldn't help but note that Cassidy was right when she made her comments of where they went wrong. "Would it be too much to ask to see the rest of the book?"

"Sure," she said, cautiously handing over the book. Ahkmenrah noticed her apprehension.

"Only if you're okay with it."

"Ahk, it's fine. I'm just not used to it. That sketchbook is just the drawings from around the museum or from when I was in the museum, so they should be relatively PG." She said. "Not that any of my other drawings aren't PG, just they're a tad dark." Cassidy said in a rush. Ahkmenrah chuckled, both at her response and how easily she had dropped formalities and gone straight for Ahk. He started to look through the pages. Sure enough, most of them were other exhibits, when they weren't then they were period drawings from every time period.

"These are all amazing," he said. Cassidy blushed.

"Thanks, would you mind if I draw you properly, not just an artist rendition of your skull?" She asked. Ahkmenrah blushed a little himself at the request but smiled.

"Where do you want me?" He asked. Cassidy lit up with a childlike grin. She took his wrist and dragged him toward the pedestal that his sarcophagus sat on. She sat him down and angled his face so the light was hitting it at an interesting angle. She tried to ignore how warm his skin was under her fingers, or how smooth it was, or the little shocks of electricity down her spine.

"You don't mind right? Sorry, I completely forgot to ask." She said, talking about moving his head. Ahkmenrah chuckled and shook his head.

"I'm fine with it Cass." He said. Cass blushed and went back to moving his face. Once she finally got it in a position she liked, she sat on the floor and started sketching. They sat in silence until Cass began to sing.

" _You walked in and my heart went boom. Tryin' to catch your eye from the side of the ballroom, everybody's dancin' and the band's top volume. Ride to the rhythm as we wine and dine, grab a sister and whisper "Yo this one's mine.""_ She let out, it then faded into a hum and Ahkmenrah tried to not let his disappointment show.

"You have a beautiful voice." He said. Cass tried to not let her surprise show.

"Sorry, not used to my models talking back to me." She said. Ahkmenrah couldn't help but chuckle.

"You know, the exhibits hear your tunes, they frequently hum them in the night." He said.

"Well it's lovely to know that my ear worms can be someone else's." Cassidy said with a chuckle. She continued to draw the handsome prince and he was happily studying her out of the corner of his eyes. She was a lively person. With dark hair hiding under a hat, her jeans had splashes of paint on them and her jacket looked to be well worn. Her eyes were warm and her smile was lightning in a bottle, he wasn't sure how the heavens managed it. Cassidy looked up from her work and caught his gaze. A blush escaped before she could bite it back.

"Why were you looking at me?" She asked as she turned her attention back to the sketchbook page.

"I like admiring beautiful things, and since you are here, I'll admire you." Ahkmenrah commented confidently. Another blush escaped her.

"You're one to talk Mr. "I could probably be mistaken for a god if I stand in the right light."" She rebuttled. Cassidy then chuckled. "Well, I failed step one. That's the longest Step one has lasted." She said. Ahkmenrah tilted his head like a puppy and she almost grinned at how adorable he was.

"Might I ask what step one was?" He said.

"Step one was don't flirt with the four thousand year old mummy who doesn't look a day over 21. So I failed step one, what's next?" She asked. She looked up from the sketch and Ahkmenrah took this as an opportunity to glance at it. She was doing marvelous job.

"Then what's step two?" He asked.

"Not sure yet, probably "don't hug the dead royalty, you'll get attached and it'll be bad."" She said as if she was certain it was going to be bad. Ahkmenrah was about to rebuttal when Larry poked his head in the doorway.

"15 minute warning Ahk." He said, walking away to warn the others. Cassidy stood up and packed her sketchbook and pencils away. She swung the bag over her shoulder.  
"I need to head home. I have classes in a couple of hours." She muttered. Ahkmenrah tilted his head.

"Will I see you tomorrow then?" He asked.

"If you'll have me, sure." She replied. Ahkmenrah grinned and hugged her, twirling her around as he did so.

"Failed step two." She said as she wrapped her arms around him. He released her and kissed the back of her hand.

"Until tomorrow Cass." He said.

"Until tomorrow Ahk." She replied as she walked out of the exhibit. The rest of the museum was packing up for the night, and did she see Larry putting a bone back into the T-Rex's ribcage? No matter, she'd ask him about it tomorrow.

"Thank you for this Larry." She said when she entered the foyer. Larry smiled at her.

"Jed and Octavius told me to tell to not let Ahk hog you again tomorrow night, they want to meet the songbird too." Larry said. Cassidy chuckled.

"I won't let him, I'll be back tomorrow Larry."

 _Oh yeah, she'd definitely be back. She needed to fail step three._


	2. Chapter 2

Although classes the next morning was hellacious for Cassidy, she didn't regret spending the night drawing a mummy. Yeah, that hadn't sunk in yet. That Ahkmenrah was a mummy right now, not the god like figure that she met last night. It was a bit surreal, even with her being a fan of surreal cinema.

As she was walking off campus to get to the museum Cheyenne, her best friend (Though that wasn't saying much, Cassidy didn't have many friends) and roommate, fell in step next to her.

"Hey! Where were you last night? You didn't come in 'til 3." She asked. Cassidy thought of a reasonable lie.

"Late night at the studio, Kennedy left it unlocked for me." Cassidy responded.

"Alright, well since I assume you're doing it again, thought I'd warn you that Adrien is gonna come over later and might be asleep on the couch when you get back to the apartment." Cheyenne said. Cassidy nodded

"I'm headed to the museum now, you know where to find me." Cassidy said. The duo waved each other off and they went their separate ways until tonight. Cassidy took her time to get to the museum and eventually found herself in the foyer of the museum. She jogged up the steps and found herself in front of the Egypt exhibit, again. "Tonight," she muttered. She walked the rest of the floor and realized that she'd never been to the downstairs exhibit halls. So she wandered downstairs and wandered into the exhibit that was hidden underneath the stairs. She walked in and saw two white guys arguing over a map and a woman standing solemnly next to them. Cassidy grinned, she had finally found the Sacagawea exhibit. She wandered over to the bench that sat in front of the glass cases housing the diorama. Cassidy opened to a new sketch page and started drawing Sacagawea. Cassidy lost herself in the art and occasionally started humming to herself. She didn't notice any of the guests as she only looked up to look at the model. So when someone tapped her shoulder she jumped.

"Hello dear, I recommend standing behind of the bench." A man said. Cassidy looked up and saw Teddy Roosevelt standing in front of her with a rock. She grabbed her supplies and stood behind the bench. Teddy chucked the rock and it shattered revealing Sacagawea. She strode out and took Teddy's hand. Cassidy looked at the duo weirdly.

"Thank you for choosing me to draw this afternoon." Sacagawea said. Cassidy nodded and offered her hand.

"Cassidy Jones, but just call me Cass." She said. Both of them smiled.

"Teddy Roosevelt. And this is Sacagawea." Teddy said.

"Pleasure to meet you, excuse me I think I have a mummy and some miniatures to meet." She said. Cassidy ran out of the exhibit and jogged up the stairs barely noticing the T-Rex playing fetch with its own rib bone. She ran up the steps and noticed that muscle memory put her in front of the Egyptian exhibit. There were giant statues of Anubis with spears that were starting to move but a command was shouted so as to not stab her. Ahkmenrah appeared from behind them and Cassidy could see his grin. He ran toward her to ensure that the guards wouldn't attack them and Cassidy met him halfway as he wrapped her in a hug.

"Hello Cass," he said when he released her. He still held onto her hands and the electric was rippling up her arms.

"Hey Ahk. I was told to tell you that the miniatures said that you can't hog me tonight." Cassidy said. Ahkmenrah faked looking offended with the only thing giving it away was the small smile crawling onto his face.

"Would I ever do such a thing?" He asked.

"Absolutely, and I've known you a night." She replied. Ahkmenrah laughed.

"Then let's stop wasting moonlight and get this drawing done." He said with a smile. Cassidy took Ahkmenrah back to the pedestal where he sat last night and positioned him with the help of her unfinished sketch.

"Perfect, don't move." She said as she sat on the floor and started sketch again. Ahkmenrah smiled at her and Cassidy rolled her eyes. After a while another song escaped her lips. _"I'm always trying to be normal, I'm always overthinking. I'm driving myself crazy, so what if I'm fucking crazy. I don't need your quick fix, I don't want your prescription. Just because you say I'm crazy."_ She sang, Again, Ahkmenrah didn't know what to do.

"Your voice is beautiful." He said.

"Thanks Ahk, c'mon your sketch is done." She said. Ahkmenrah stood up and offered a hand to help Cassidy stand. She took it and he pulled her up and accidently close. Cassidy blushed a bit but then took a step back. She held her sketchbook up and showed him the drawing.

"This is spectacular, are you sure you're not a magician?" He asked. Cassidy chuckled and shook her head.

"Nope, not at all." She said. Ahkmenrah chuckled.

"So what haven't you drawn Cass?" He asked.

"Umm… the mammal hall is probably the biggest exhibit I haven't drawn." She said. Ahkmenrah smiled and offered his hand.

"Then allow me to walk you over there, and help tame the others so you can draw them." He said. Cass smiled and extracted one of her hands from her pocket and took his hand.

"I'd love that." She said. Ahkmenrah grinned and the two walked down the hall.

"So Cass, where are you from?" He asked.

"Born and raised in Miami. Now a days I live in Manhattan in a shoebox apartment with my roommate Cheyenne, you will never meet her if I can help it. I'm an art major and my thesis project is the museum drawings." Cassidy explained.

"Does that meant that one of these days you'll stop coming here?" Ahkmenrah asked, afraid of the answer.

"Well, maybe but maybe not, depends if I'm given a reason to stay." She replied. They turned a corner and walked into a room with a pride of lions, zebras, and ostriches. One of the lions saw Ahkmenrah and bowed. Ahkmenrah smiled as the lion trotted up. Cass gripped onto his hand a bit tighter which caused him to chuckle.

"Relax, Sundi means you no harm." He whispered in her ear. The lion leaned against Ahkmenrah and offered his head to Cassidy. She cautiously stuck her hand out. Sundi nudged her hand as if asking to be petted. Cassidy chuckled and knelt down to pet the lion. He then shoved her torso so she was sitting.

"Oh my god he's a literal giant cat." Cassidy commented. Ahkmenrah chuckled and sat down next to her. Sundi then laid between the two and yawned. "Well, lions do spend most of their time sleeping." She commented. "Sundi huh? Short for Sundiata I assume?" Cassidy said.

"Yes, one of the exhibits told me about the story." Ahkmenrah said. The duo looked around the room as the animals wandered around. Cassidy didn't wanted anything to sink in. she didn't want to think too hard that she had a lion peacefully sleeping next to her, or that there was a beautiful pharaoh that had held her hand and had even flirted with her, or that she had been found drawing Sacagawea by Teddy Roosevelt (That for some bizarre reason reminded her of the genie from Aladdin.) No, she didn't want to think about any of that, right now a really cute cat was lying next to her named after an African folklore king and a guy who could pass for a god was sitting next to her. She pulled out her sketchbook out of her bag and started to draw the room. Ahkmenrah took note of the girl just as much as she was taking note of the room. She was this entity who took the whole "Museum comes to life at night" thing in stride, she was kind and talented, and didn't seemed to be phased by him.

"Come, you've got some miniatures to meet." He said after twenty minutes of silence. Cassidy looked up and nodded. She got herself standing and pet Sundi one more time. The lion poked his head up and acknowledged the departure of the pharaoh. The two walked out of the hall and down to the front desk where Cassidy heard bickering.

"You said we would watch the pastry cat after this one." Said someone with a British accent.

"Yeah, but this one looks funnier." Said someone with an old west accent. Ahkmenrah and Cassidy looked down and smiled at the two little men.

"Hey, it's boss man and the songbird." Said the one with the western accent.

"Hello Jedidiah, Octavius." Ahkmenrah said. "This is Cassidy Jones, the songbird as you call her."

"Hello you guys, pleasure to finally meet you I suppose." Cassidy said with a half salute to the both of them. She looked over at the computer screen. "And if you want my advice, watch the pastry cat, much more fun." She said. Ahkmenrah chuckled.

"Don't get them started." He said. As soon as he said the duo started to squabble. Ahkmenrah took Cassidy's arm and walked away.

"They argue like an old married couple." Cassidy said.

"That they do." Ahkmenrah agreed. The two looked to the window. "The sun is starting to rise. I must go." He said. Cassidy nodded and hugged Ahkmenrah.

"Until tonight then." She muttered. Ahkmenrah hugged her back

"Until tonight, goodbye Artist of Manhattan." He said.

"Goodbye Pharaoh of Egypt." Cassidy said. She watched as he separated from the hug and jogged up the stairs back to his exhibit. He gave her one last smile as he disappeared into the Egypt exhibit. Cassidy stifled the yawn that escaped her and walked out the door.

 _Oh she was starting to like this place._


	3. Chapter 3

Cassidy woke up the next morning and walked out into the main space of her apartment. There she found Cheyenne's boyfriend drinking coffee with his shirt off. At this point, this was a normal occurrence so she just shrugged it off.

"Morning Adrien," she muttered walking to the Keurig to make her morning cup of coffee. Her first class wasn't for another hour, so she had time to lay about.

"Morning Cassidy, Cheyenne want to her first class already. I'll head out once I'm done." Adrien said gesturing to his coffee. Cassidy nodded and went to pull down her cereal. The duo stayed silent as coffee was made, cereal was poured, and coffee was finished. Adrien put his mug in the sink and walked back over to the couch. He put his shirt back on

"Later Cassidy." He said walking out the door. Cassidy gave him a wave but went back to her breakfast. She didn't mind Adrien, she just appreciate silence sometimes, especially when she was first waking up. She finished breakfast, lollygagged getting dressed, and meandered getting to class. She was, as always, the first one there. Mr. Rawling, her favorite film professor, if not her favorite professor, smiled at her.

"Good morning Miss. Jones," he said in his diluted Irish accent. "I see you took your time." He added, taking note that she was three minutes late to her fifteen minutes early.

"Nice day, I wanted to enjoy it." Cassidy responded. Mr. Rawling nodded, knowing the sentiment as well as enjoying that Cassidy might be slowing down from her always hectic life.

"That's good to hear." Mr. Rawling said.

"So what's today's topic?" She asked. Mr. Rawling chuckled, there was Cassidy.

"You'll learn when everyone else does." He said. Cassidy sighed and sat in her usual spot in the middle of the room. The rest of the students filed in and the class went started and went on. They ended up learning and discussing the art of media transfer. It was a great discussion and she always loved Rawling's class for this very reason. They'd watch a film, discuss it, and figure out what it did and right and wrong. The class was released and Cassidy waved to Rawling and wandered to her other art building. Mrs. Kalgren was her art teacher. She was a nice enough teacher. Thought Mrs. Kalgren and Mr. Rawling both suffered from the idea that Cassidy was a lonely girl. Cassidy did get lonely, but she had gotten used to it. Being a middle child of 6 kids and not doing anything extraordinary, she was used to people not paying attention as well as spending time on her own.

"Morning Cassidy, how was Mr. Rawling's?" Mrs. Kalgren asked when Cassidy walked in. Cassidy gave her a brief smile and sat on one of the tables surrounding the room.

"We had an interesting discussion about media transfer." Cassidy said. Mrs. Kalgren nodded.

"How's your exhibit going?" She asked.

"I redrew my mummy, drew his sarcophagus, drew Sacagawea, and finally found the mammal hall so I got to start drawing the lions." Cassidy replied.

"Your mummy was fine, why the urge to redraw him?" Mrs. Kalgren asked. Cassidy paled for a second and then sighed. She had a lie, why the sudden panic?

"They got a more accurate portrayal." Cassidy said.

"May I see the improved mummy?" She asked. Cassidy nodded and pulled out her sketchbook, flipping to the page and handing over the book. Mrs. Kalgren looked at it and marveled. Cassidy had always been talented but the drawing that was put in front of her was stunning. He looked so lifelike, and with a smile like that he looked to be quite the charmer.

"Cassidy this is amazing; what did you do, travel back in time to take a royal portrait?" Mrs. Kalgren asked.

"Something like that." Cassidy muttered. Mrs. Kalgren chuckled at her, thinking she was making a joke. The rest of the class shuffled into the room and Cassidy took her seat. Today was a course on design elements so Cassidy tuned them out, and was just thinking about funky color palettes for some of her later art. She needed some sort of side project outside of the museum so she didn't spend every day of her existence there. She also didn't want to be attached to a certain 4,000 year old mummy. That would be difficult to explain to the parents if she ever let it slip she had a boyfriend just to get them to shut up it. _Oh yeah, my boyfriend can only be met in the middle of the night, and he's a mummy, but other than that he's pleasant._ Yeah, that would go over _brilliantly._ Mrs. Kalgren dismissed the class early and Cassidy wandered out and walked around campus when she got a phone call.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hey Cassidy!" a shrill voice sang. Cassidy resisted the urge to groan. Oh look, it was her least favorite sister (Though that would imply she had a favorite, she didn't.)

"Hi, Wendy," Cassidy responded through her teeth. There was a reason that most of Cassidy's nieces and nephews didn't know about her existence: her siblings, her parents, and most if not all of her extended family, didn't seem to like her all that much. Be it because she decided to go into art rather than music or law like everyone expected her too, or because she wasn't a model child. "What do you need?" Cassidy asked, figuring there had to be a reason behind her calling. Wendy chuckled on the other end of the line.

"What? I can't call my little sister to check in on her?" She asked. Cassidy rolled her eyes.

"Considering the chance of that happening is 1%, you need something so cut the bullshit and tell me what you want?" Cassidy said.

"I need to know who you're bringing to Lily's wedding." Wendy said. Cassidy rolled her eyes.

"I sent my invitation back, I'm not going to the wedding." She said.

"Mom said you have to come."

"Mom can suck it, I'm 22 and not under her rule." Cassidy snapped back. She then hung up and shoved her phone in her pocket again. She took a breath and strolled toward the museum. She was plugged in, listening to _You Don't Love Me Like You Should_. Which she thought was fitting for the mood. She jogged up the steps of the museum and wandered around the main foyer before heading off to an exhibit.


End file.
